As we approach the extent to which powerful processors can be miniaturized the engineering has to move in a new direction. At IBM that direction is a brain-inspired 3D architecture, staking processors and memory in close proximity.  But it is a solution with the same old problem.  How do you remove all the heat? One possible answer; Electronic Blood. The art of liquid cooling has been demonstrated by Aquasar and put to work inside the German supercomputer SuperMUC which – perversely – harnesses warm water to cool its circuits. SuperMUC consumes 40% less electricity as a result. But for IBM to truly match the marvels of the brain, there is a third evolutionary step it must achieve – simultaneous liquid fueling and cooling. Just as blood gives sugar in one hand and takes heat with another, IBM is looking for a fluid that can multitask. Vanadium is the best performer

Computer aided or assisted design has evolved thanks to the robotic revolution and innovations that made 3D printing a reality.  Today’s designers and craftsman can exchange the hand-tools they used to use for digital design tools and equipment that allows them to turn their imagination into a part or product in a fraction of the time.   And not just where they are, but anywhere in the world where the equipment and materials are at hand, without ever having to leave their workshop. Financial Times Thanks to technological strides in computer-aided manufacturing, jewellery designers are now able to release more unique designs more frequently – and they are precisely matching supply and demand in the process. “With 3D printing, it doesn’t matter how intricate a design is or how many variations you make, the cost of production is only determined by the material used,” says Duann Scott, designer evangelist at Shapeways

By manipulating light, carbon-dioxide, and nutrients cutting edge food scientists are hacking into fruits and vegetables in search of new ways to control how they grow.  This isn’t some funky fertilizer research either.  Recent discoveries about light, for example, have produced some bountiful results. At the Wageningen greenhouses (Wageningen University and Research Center, Netherlands), researchers can grow as many as 150 pounds of tomatoes in a square yard of space. And by using specially calibrated LED lights, they have managed to produce exotic new tomatoes with a whopping 50 percent more vitamin C than ordinary ones. By manipulating wavelengths of light and using LED’s that emit these wavelengths, used together or at different times during the day or night, even directed directly at developing fruit, the growers have been able to achieve these amazing results. We’ve seen in the last year that we can increase the amount of vitamin C

Would you want your Smartphone to have a kill switch? A New York State Attorney General and a San Francisco District Attorney are meeting with four major cell phone manufacturers to discuss the possibility of integrating a feature that would allow for the remote deactivation of the devices when stolen. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said on Wednesday that they will meet on July 13 to meet with representatives of the four largest smartphone manufacturers to discuss the idea. The prosecutors intend to ask the firms to include a disability mechanism on future mobiles that will render the devices useless if taken — which could eliminate the current incentives for theft and prevent smart-phones being sold on to other users. The allure of compact high-tech with a high price-tag is causing lawbreakers to assault women and children to acquire them, an

IQ Biometrix has developed a software package called FACES.  It allows almost anyone, without ever having been trained as a forensic artist, to render a near-photo-quality composite sketch of a human face. The package comes with 4400 different facial features, and an easy to use interface. With an expanded database of 4,400 facial features, including new Latin, African-American and Asian components, FACES 4.0 lets you create accurate composites of either sex and any race. Selected features are blended together to produce a photo-quality composite image. New to FACES 4.0 is the ability to enhance image accuracy by choosing among three different hair tones: adding facial markings such as scars, moles, piercings, tattoos and earrings: and using hats, headwear and eyeglasses.  The generated image can be used with facial recognition technology or to compare to images in a mug-shot database.  The software is also able to use video enhancement technology to create a composite from still frame video.  The completed

US Researchers have come up with a successful way to introduce a nano-particle network into the blood of a diabetes patient that would be able to deliver insulin as needed for up to ten days. The process, successful in animal trials, hopes to move to human clinical trials, where if it produces similar results could address two pressing problems with insulin delivery.  Patients would not have to inject themselves multiple times a day and, there would be no risk of improper dosing. From gizmag.com The injectable nano-network is made up of a mixture that contains nanoparticles with a solid core or insulin, modified dextran (which is commonly used to reduce blood viscosity), and glucose oxidase enzymes. When exposed to high levels of glucose, the enzymes convert glucose into gluconic acid, which breaks down the modified dextran to release the insulin. The gluconic acid and dextran, which are biocompatible, dissolve in the body, while